Alaskan Way Viaduct: A third way

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Published
10:00 pm PDT, Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Most Seattle politicians preach the merits of a "livable" city, with cleaner air and water, open space, pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and transit-related development. Now, a group of artists, activists, architects and environmentalists says city officials have a chance to put their money where their mouths are.

Members of the People's Waterfront Coalition have elbowed their way into the debate over how to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct. That debate has been framed as a choice between carrying the roadway's 110,000 daily vehicle trips via a new elevated structure or through a tunnel -- "The Big Ugly" vs. "The Big Dig."

But the coalition proposes a stunning, perhaps outlandish, third way: Don't rebuild it at all; take it down, repair the sea wall, build a waterfront park instead, and a four-lane, ground-level roadway.

Where will those 110,000 vehicles go?

Some, they say, will go to I-5, or existing city streets, or to the new ground-level Alaskan Way. Some drivers will take transit. And some simply won't go. In any event, they argue, we'll advance our larger goals by rejecting the presumption that the city must accommodate automobile use when alternatives are recognized as key elements in making the city more livable.

The Legislature has put the city on a tight viaduct decision deadline, but it is worth the time and money for the City Council to carefully examine the coalition's proposal. Seattle faces the decision of a generation that it must get right.